The
early days of radio and television promised to bring enlightenment to the
world. The public airwaves, we were told, would be used for the public
good, as a tool for education and for the spread of democracy. That has
simply not been the case. The public airwaves, like all things public,
were usurped by profit seeking capitalists to promote commercialism,
propaganda, and the privatization of profits. It was another example of
socialized cost and privatized profits that are a characteristic of
capitalism. Not only were the public airwaves used as an instrument to
exploit and to control the masses, they were used to dumb down America.
Entertainment and consumerism quickly supplanted education and every other
form of social uplift that should have permeated the airwaves.

It is important to understand that
capitalism rarely works in the public interest. Profit motive is the
driving force. Any public good that stems from it is purely accidental.

The corporate media that was long ago used
as a weapon against the people is still used to promulgate the lies and
distortions that have torn this nation asunder and set the world ablaze
with war and discord. The shameless promotion of the war in Iraq and the
brutal occupation of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military are
poignant examples. The commercial media is used against us like a weapon
to promote the most barbaric human behavior and they are allowed to call
it liberation, democracy, and Christianity. Invading and occupying armies
are called liberators, while those defending their homes are labeled
insurgents and terrorists.

Beyond their use to promote war, both at
home and abroad, the public air waves are also used to endorse consumption
on a grand scale that is detrimental to the health of the planet, so that
a few get rich by exploiting the many.

So infected are the public airwaves with the
lies and distortions of capitalism and the military industrial complex,
that there is no room for the _expression of opposing opinions or dissent.
The perspectives presented are so homogenized and conformist as to be
nearly indistinguishable from one another. This mush is spoon fed into the
malleable minds of the restless consumer, if I may borrow a phrase from
Neal Young, resulting in a bloated corpse of humanity that is essentially
brain dead and unable to act in its own defense.

Enter the Internet, one of the last bastions
for democracy and the free and open exchange of ideas. The Internet
provides a place where people around the world can gather, share ideas,
enjoy a laugh, and seek truth. It is not perfect but it is a resource that
is pregnant with possibilities. It is one of the last places where one can
readily read dissenting points of view that are no longer possible in the
mainstream of corporate reportage and synthesized news. Thank goodness we
can still gather at web sites like this and create a vision for a just and
peaceful future, as an alternative to war that will not end in our
lifetimes.

If the world’s largest telecommunications
companies have their way that will change. Currently, the complex series
of ones and zeroes that move at high speed through millions of miles of
cables and airwaves are treated equally -- a byte is a byte is a byte,
whether yours, mine or Bill Gates’. The concept of net neutrality stems
from this principle. Telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and
Comcast want to change that by creating a two-tiered superhighway -- a
technological toll road, if you will. Users who pay additional fees,
primarily corporate clients promoting capitalism, would have unfettered
access to the fast lanes. The rest of us would, rather than being treated
as equals, become second-class citizens stuck in the slowest lanes with
the poorest service. In the worst case scenario service could be denied
altogether.

The greatest danger is that the Internet
would no longer be free. The world’s largest telecommunications companies
would become the gatekeepers that control the flow of information and
ideas. Thus, web sites like this one might function so poorly, because the
corporate gatekeepers do not approve of its content, that they would
essentially become unusable. Web sites that provide a medium for writers
who challenge the corporate paradigm, such as the one you are now reading,
could operate so slow that they would lose all but the most loyal
following.

In the familiar parlance of corporate speak
the telecommunications companies and their puppets in Congress, for
example, Alaska senator Ted Stevens, a republican, want us to believe that
net neutrality amounts to burdensome regulation that stifles innovation
and reduces corporate profits. The supporters of the telecommunications
bill making its way through Congress are shameless promoters of predatory
capitalism and they should be impeached.

If net neutrality is defeated the result
will be a familiar one that characterizes all capitalist societies divided
by class. Once again, it will be those with money who get preferential
treatment. It will be much like our American coin operated congress in
which capital is equated to free speech. Those with money will have
access, those without will not.

It is dangerous to get between a Grizzly
Bear and her cubs; but it is far more dangerous to get between a
capitalist and his dollar. Men like Ted Stevens, who so typify Congress
these days, are a slave to his corporate pay masters. He does not serve
the interest of the people or the commonwealth any more than do AT&T,
Verizon and Comcast. Senator Steven’s abysmal voting record speaks for
itself. It is all about socializing cost and privatizing wealth
--predatory capitalism.